This Country stars Daisy and Charlie Cooper talk series two and growing up in Cirencester

Exclusive

Following an exclusive preview screening of the much-anticipated new series of This Country, written by and featuring Cirencester siblings Daisy and Charlie Cooper, The Standard was invited to sit down and have a chat with the talented duo.
To the uninitiated, the comedy, filmed in Northleach, features cousins Kerry (Daisy) and Kurtan Mucklowe (Charlie) and their lives in a fictional Cotswold village.
The first series quickly won rave reviews and fans have been eagerly awaiting news of the second series which begins soon on the BBC.

Standard: After such a successful first series, what made the pair opt in for another?

Charlie and Daisy: “Money!”

Charlie: “We got offered it as soon as we did the first series. We had our eye on doing another just because there are so many stories to tell and we didn’t want to end it on one story, but then it got commissioned fairly quickly and we went straight into the writing.”

Standard: So, what can viewers expect from the new series?

Charlie: “There weren't any ideas left from series one that went into series two. We approached it from, how could we test the characters in a way we haven’t done before, and what different sides can we see from them really. We got a bit more into story writing more so this series.”

“I think we bring more focus on Kerry and her relationship with her Dad, which we touched on at the end of the first episode, the peeping tom episode, but explored it further really.”

Daisy: “We didn’t realise how moved people were, we just found it really funny that there was this dad ignoring this daughter and that cold relationship. But then when people were saying 'oh my god this really moved me', we didn’t expect it and we thought we have to write more about this. And, our dad was really desperate to be in the second series because he’s such a show off!”

Standard: Did you ever think it would get the success it did?

Daisy: “No, we were actually more worried that people wouldn’t get it, and people locally might think we were taking the micky, but we actually weren’t at all.

But people actually loved it and responded too it, and it’s so nice because I get stopped in Cirencester all the time, with people saying that 'storyline in that episode reminded me of something that happened to me' and it’s so nice.”

Standard: What feeling do you get when people stop you in town?

Daisy: “Too begin with it was absolutely surreal, especially in your local town because someone would say Daisy and I would think I knew them because we’re in the same place, but it’s because they recognised me from the show.”

“The first time I got stopped I was in Costa in Cirencester, and a woman came up to me and asked me for a selfie, and I remembered thinking why on earth would you want a selfie with me, and that was the first time, and it was really surreal.”

Standard: What was it like growing up in Cirencester?

Daisy: “Yeah it was very boring, but we did love living in Cirencester and we have such fond memories of it, but had absolutely nothing to do, you can only go to the Corinium museum and the open-air pool like five times before.”

Charlie: “... You question your sanity. But yeah so much of this show comes from when we tried to make our own entertainment really.”

Daisy: “Yeah drinking in the Abbey Grounds, the amphitheatre, that’s all you could do really. Especially when the regal cinema shut down, that was really bad.”

Charlie: “It was a really bad cinema, it was awful, it was run by one guy, with one tooth, who was 80, we used to go there and torment him.”

Dasiy: “That’s all we used to do as kids, go rounds Gardeners, the department store round the lighting section because there was nothing else to do.”

Standard: You still live locally, what keeps you attracted to the area?

Daisy: “It’s the love for the area. We love the people, we love the great sense of community, now that everyone sort of knows us around here.”

Charlie: “We don’t necessarily have to be anywhere else, we don’t have to be in London for work so why shouldn’t we be here, it’s nice, we prefer this pace of life and its quiet.”

Daisy: “As soon as we leave we get terribly homesick.”

Standard: Have you ever taken a character or a storyline from a story in this paper?

Daisy: “We were really inspired by a man who took 8 years to grow a pineapple. We are desperate to try and get it in somewhere, it took him 8 years and it’s only the size of my hand. We have to write that in.”

Charlie: “We also used to look at the paper for ideas and inspiration, we had one summer before the first series where we would go to every fete, any listing in the paper, duck races, scarecrow competitions.”

“Cinema night came from the Wilts and Glos Standard, there was a cinema night that someone had put on and I remember reading it and thinking we have to do an episode like that which we did.”

Standard: Have you got anything exciting coming up in the future aside from This Country?

Daisy: “Well I have been offered to go on Would I Lie to You.”

“I’m going on in May. That is the thing I have always wanted to do, go on a panel show. I am a huge fan of David Mitchell obviously in Peep Show, so this will be pretty cool. The thing is on Would I lie To You, you have to come up with anecdotes that have happened to you, from your past, and a lot of them will be coming from Cirencester, so tune in and see.”

Standard: What does the future hold for you and This Country?

Charlie- “If anything came our way that we really liked, we would, but I think at the moment we're more than happy just writing This Country and getting ideas for that.

We don’t want to milk it to death, but a couple more series would be nice and then maybe go on and do something else, write something else."

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